Najmeh Griffin, 69, was indicted on two counts of injury to an elderly related to the 2011 shut down of a Flour Bluff assisted living facility.

CORPUS CHRISTI - A Corpus Christi woman is set to face trial this month on allegations that she abused elderly patients at her assisted living facility.

The November indictment of Najmeh Griffin came after the facility was shut down by the state on April 11, 2011, on allegations of patient abuse and neglect. She owned the Affordable Quality Care Assisted Living along with the neighboring Adult Loving Care in Flour Bluff. The adult day care closed last year.

Griffin was indicted in November on two counts of injury to an elderly with intent to cause bodily injury, a third degree felony.

Griffin pleaded not guilty to the charges in December and is set to face trial in late February.

The Department of Aging and Disability Services closed Affordable Quality Care Assisted Living in 2011 after an investigator found the facility violated state standards. Residents were neglected and subjected to repeated verbal and physical abuse, including being forced to wear soiled diapers wrapped in bags around their necks, according to the inspector’s reports.

When the state ordered an emergency closure of the living facility in April 2011, the 16 residents remained at the center with state staff until other living arrangements were made. Each resident eventually moved to other homes.

The investigators findings were sent to the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit and a criminal investigation was conducted. The investigation focused on two separate allegations involving three patients, according to the report.

On May 5, 2011, an employee found two clients in the bathroom with plastic bags around their necks filled with feces and urine, according to the criminal investigation report. The employee removed the bags and took pictures of the red marks on the patient’s necks where the bags were hanging. Najmeh Griffin told the employee that the “clients needed to learn not to soil themselves and that’s why the bags were placed around their necks.”

The report also states that on July 15, 2009, two employees witnessed Griffin force feed a male patient during lunch. When the man started choking, Griffin failed to provide medical treatment and didn’t allow staff to call 911, according to the report.

“When (the man’s) skin started to turn purple/blue, the employees took matters into their own hands and provided first aid... and called for an ambulance,” the report states.

Griffin later had to be removed from the hospital when she gave the man water, which was against his treating physician’s orders.

The state’s investigator interviewed a day care staff member in April 2011 who said that Najmeh Griffin had pinned incontinent pads to resident’s clothing every day and that it was a common practice, according to an investigation report. During the review, the investigator saw a resident who needed assistance going to the bathroom and called out for help, but waited 50 minutes before staff helped her to the restroom.

About a year after the state filed a temporary restraining order and temporary injunctions in 2011 against the living facility, the state also filed an injunction against the neighboring adult day care. The day care, which is about 100 feet away from the assisted living facility, was cited with additional violations and the state’s petition was amended to include both facilities.

The Griffins agreed to close the adult day care in June 2012.

The Department of Aging and Disability Services claimed in court documents that both facilities threatened the health and safety of the nearly 55 residents. A civil case was set to go to trial in November 2012, but the Griffins settled it with the state in August 2012. As part of the settlement, the Griffins agreed to close both facilities, pay a $100,000 fine and refrain from ever providing health care services again, except to family, according to court documents.